Advent 1st Sunday: A King Like No Other

Do you know that it’s less than 4 weeks until Christmas?

We are entering a time that we call Advent.

Traditionally the last 4 Sunday’s leading up to Christmas.

And for the next 4 Sundays I would like to step away from our study of John and think about the gift of Jesus.

Question for kids:

What usually happens when you do something wrong?

Do you get punished? Sometimes

Do you always get punished? Has there ever been a time when you did something wrong? Let’s say that you broke something,

and you thought that maybe you might get punished, but instead your mom and dad said, “That’s Ok. It was an accident.”

And they took their money and paid for whatever it was that was broken?

Or maybe you’ve had another experience where you thought maybe you would be punished, but instead your mom and dad (or someone else) forgave you and never brought it up again?

There is a story in the Bible about a young man who became king of the land of Judah.

His name was Ahaz. And he was just 20 years old when he became king.

Some of you might think that 20 seems kind of old, but I’m starting to think that 20 is kind of young. in fact, I’m 48 and I still think I would be too young to be a king.

But anyway, Ahaz was the son of another king named Jotham.

Now, we don’t know a lot about Jotham, but from what the Bible says, he was an…OK king.

He married the daughter of the high priest and he did what was right in the sight of the LORD. But he did not tear down the places that people went to worship idols and false gods.

So that’s why I say he was an OK king. He was kind of half-hearted about following the LORD.

And then his son Ahaz became king. And Ahaz was just plain BAD! He did some really awful things that I won’t go into too much. But if you are curious about what He did, you can ask you mom and dad about it.

His story is found in 2 Kings 16

Well, when Ahaz became king, immediately he had a problem.

And that was, there were two Kings ready to attack him and the kingdom of Judah

Rezin, King of Syria

Pekah, King of Israel

Had joined together and were coming to attack him and he knew he was going to be beaten. Two against one, right?

Young King Ahaz was scared!

I would have been scared too!

But God had mercy on King Ahaz. And He sent the prophet Isaiah to him and said, “Hey don’t be scared. You know those two kings that are threatening you? Compared to my power they are like a piece of grass that you set on fire. They aren’t going to hurt you. All you have to do is ask me to help you. ASK ME FOR A SIGN”.

Ask me to prove to you that I love you and am going to help you.

Now what do you think Ahaz did? Did He cry out to God for help? Did he ask God to do something that shows how strong He is?

It seems like that would have been the best thing to do.

But he didn’t do that.

Instead Ahaz ignored what God had to say.

Instead he acted all goody-goody and said, “I wouldn’t dare ask the LORD for a sign”.

and later, he ran off and asked another king to help him. Not a good king either! But a very evil, pagan king! One who didn’t know God at all!

It turned out to be a really bad move.

But what Ahaz did must have really hurt God. God had offered help to him, but instead Ahaz turned his back on God.

But did God punish Ahaz?

Well, not really. He does tell Ahaz later on that he is making a very bad decision by asking the king of Assyria for help

God says, “If you aren’t going to ask me for a sign, I myself, am going to give you a sign”.

Here it is. I’m going to send you the Messiah. I am going to send you someone who will be a King forever and ever

And on the video we heard the verses about this King. And what we find out as we read is this King is going to be no ordinary King. He’s going to be a really special King!

He will have a special birth

God says to king Ahaz, A young woman who is not married is going to get pregnant and have a baby.

This is your sign Ahaz! I am sending you a King who is going to have a special birth

And this is going to be a miracle.

He’s not going be be born like you were, Ahaz, the son of a earthly King.

He’s going to be born to a young woman who will marry her fiance.

Both of them poor from a small town in Galilee. Maybe like Wellman, or Kalona, or Riverside.

an insignificant place

Where nobody famous has ever come from. No presidents, no Kings

And they will travel to another small, poor, insignificant town, where this King will be born.

And He will be born among the animals instead of a fancy and comfortable room in the palace.

And He will be placed in a feeding trough instead of a comfortable crib.

And He will be announced by a chorus of angels and visited by humble shepherds instead of noblemen

Isn’t amazing the way God works? That He takes simple things and simple people and makes them great.

You may feel like “I’m just little old me. I just live in a small town, or out in the country. Nobody great ever comes from places like this”

But I want to tell you. In God’s Kingdom, in God’s plan, it doesn’t matter where you were born or where you are from.

What He wants is for hearts that are willing to follow Him and do whatever He wants. And He will do mighty things through you if you have a heart like that.

He’s will have a special name

When someone in our church has a baby, we give our babies more “usual names”, right? (name some kids)

Today, when we name our children, sometimes moms and dads pick out names that they like the sound of

Other times, we pick out names that have special meaning to them.

But back in Bible times, moms and dad almost always picked out names that had special meaning to them and that told us something about this child.

Isaac: means laughter. Why? Because his mother, Sarah laughed when the angel told her that she would have a baby

Samuel: Hannah’s prayer was heard by God and she had a baby. She named him Samuel, meaning “God heard”.

This baby that we are talking about today would have a really special name.

God says, this young woman is going to name her baby “Immanuel”.

He would be named Immanuel. And that means “GOD WITH US”

What? How can this be?! You mean the God of the universe, the One who is so holy that nobody can look at Him, that’s the God that we are talking about?

You mean, the God that only speaks to the prophets?

Yes! That’s the God we are talking about!

Well, how can this be? How it be that this God could live among us?

And many years later, this came true! Jesus came and was God here on this earth.

And He lived among us and talked to people, and loved them and healed them.

And showed us who God is!

And He is still here with us today. He sent us the Holy Spirit to live with us and in us.

And through the Holy Spirit and through reading the Scripture, we can know this King. Not just know about Him, but really know Him.

What He likes, How He wants us to live, what His voice sounds like

Every day we can walk with Him

Immanuel! What a special name. What an incredible name!

He will be a special King

Chapter nine of Isaiah says that this baby with a special name is going to be a King. And it tells us what kind of king He will be

There have been many kings and world leaders over the years

And when we talk about them, we remember them as “good” or “bad”, or “meh, he was OK

Even the ones that we think were mostly good, we could think of things that they did wrong.

Example: David—good but made some really bad mistakes

And our leaders today. Many times, even if he is someone we like or support, they end up disappointing us somewhere along the way by things that they say or do.

But In chapter nine of Isaiah, we read that this King will be a King unlike any other.

And when we talk about Him, we will use words and names that we wouldn’t use for any other King. Not even the really good kings

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

What an incredible, amazing, special King!

Who would not want a King with these kinds of names?

Wonderful Counselor

Oh, how we need wisdom and good council. This King is a wonderful counselor

Jesus, before He left this earth said that I’m going to send you The Counselor. The Holy Spirit who will lead you into all truth

That’s for each of us. Not just the preacher or the elders.

Mighty God

Who would not want a King who is THE Mighty God?

In Him we live and move and have our being! (Paul in Acts 17)

Everlasting Father

Our Fathers are earthly Fathers. We love our fathers but one day they will go to be with Jesus

This Father is one without beginning and without end!

Prince of Peace!

Oh, how we need peace!

Ahaz needed peace. He was afraid of a battle that was coming and knew he was going to get beat

But what he needed more than anything, and what we need more than anything else in our lives is Peace with God

This King IS the Prince of Peace. He brings peace like no other prince or king could possibly bring!

With Jesus, we have peace with God!

He will have a kingdom of grace and peace that will grow and grow.

John chapter 1 says that in Jesus, we have experienced grace upon grace. Grace that never runs out, but continues to increase and expand

He will have a special mission

His mission would be to bring peace and save His people

Now most kings, when they want to save their people from something, they order their army to get ready and they prepare for war

Or they go to the lawmakers and they tell them to make a law about something

But this King God said is going to save His people in a really special way.

How did Jesus save His people? He died for them.

Our King said, “Those people that I created have sinned. And we know that the punishment for sin is death. That’s what they need to be saved from.

But I love them. I do not want that to happen to them

Do you remember when we talked about when maybe you have done something wrong and you know that you should be punished, but maybe mom or dad steps in and says, “I’m not going to punish you, even though you deserve it”

Instead I’m going to take care of what you’ve done

That’s what this King would do.

Instead of getting his army together or making a law, He would come and die for His people so that we wouldn’t have to be punished for our sins

And so that we could have peace with God!

Isaiah writes about this in chapter 53

3 He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.

4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows[a] that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! 5 But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

10 But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands. 11 When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins.

Did you hear that? it was OUR sin that caused Jesus to be mistreated, mocked, beaten, and finally crucified.

But it was all part of God’s plan because He has such love for you and for me!

Our King willingly came to earth as a little baby, lived among us, served us, taught us, and then died for us.

What a special mission!

This is why we are celebrating this season.

Yes, we look forward to Christmas gifts. We like lights, and decorations.

But we do that because of our amazing King. The One who came when folks only deserved the punishment of God. And our King took that punishment for us!